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Monday, July 21, 2014

2013 Comic-Con Follow Up

Comic-Con is coming up soon. Every year ('11, '12, '13) I write about news from Comic-Con. Usually, I start with a recap/follow-up of stuff from the previous Comic-Con, and then move on to my reactions to the new announcements. However, last year's post got ri-goddamned-diculously long, so I decided to split it into at least two posts: the follow up, and the new reactions.With that said, let's get started.TwixtWay back in 2011 I wrote about Francis For Coppola working on a new movie. It was announced at the same time as Ridley Scott's movie, and it was interesting to see two famous directors working on movies announced at Comic-Con. It came out without really any buzz. In fact, I didn't know it had come out until last year.Well, it was finally added to Netflix and I watched it. And...yowza. It earned its terrible Rotten Tomatoes rating. The thing is, though? I liked it. Not in the "it's a good movie" sense. In the "this movie is so ridiculous, what is even the hell?" sense. As I said previously, it looks like Francis Ford Coppola just discovered how to use green screen. Val Kilmer plays a drunk, but I think he might actually have been drunk. Bruce Dern was amazing. I think they had to use so much green screen because Dern had already eaten all of the scenery. It was amazing, just not in the way they wanted it to be.Uglies Still basically no news. My reaction stands.Jurassic Park 4 - aka "Jurassic World"They have finally decided to kick this movie into high gear it seems. I don't have a lot to say. I've read up on it a little, but the most interesting news so far is that Chris Pratt is starring in it. Since Chris Pratt is on the road to ruling the world (The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc.), I'm going to say I'm intrigued--because who doesn't love Andy Dwyer?--but not, like, frothing to see this or anything. Possibly more to be announced at Comic-Con.

The Hobbit 2: Please God Make It Stop
I know I said the first one felt a bit bloated, but that I still enjoyed it. I don't know what changed about this one, but I hated hated HATED this one. It started out promising, but every action piece that happened would quickly spiral out of control. Going down the river, bouncing off of orcs like its a goddamned video game, paying homage to Scooby-Doo while outruninng Smaug in the mountain. Just...fuck this movie man. It felt like a waste of time and left me angry. Plus: a second white orc? I thought the whole goddamned point was that there was only one, and that's why he was unique? What the fuck is this bullshit?Horns
Horns is FINALLY coming out. I'm sure they'll talk about it more at Comic-Con, but I am STOKED for this one. Daniel Radcliffe looks like he's done a great job. I've talked previously about how excited I am about it.

I loved the first one. Still do. Great, great work with minimal CG, and mostly practical, well paced scares. And it's not that the new one is bad--it's not...per se.

It just feels pointless.

Like, it feels like they could have cut this thing down to 30 minutes and just tacked it on to the end of the original without causing any problems. The majority of the movie is slow and drags because they explain things that YOU ALREADY KNOW, BECAUSE YOU WATCHED THE FIRST ONE. And some characters act extremely stupid given that this film takes place the same night as the previous.

But it's almost worth it to watch Patrick Wilson go ape shit by the end ala The Shining. Seriously, at least worth one watch for that. And there really are some creepy, scary moments. But the story just wasn't there this time, which means that, ultimately, it feels like a waste of time.

You're Next

You're Next is hard to describe without spoiling. It's just one of those movies. So this will sound very unintentionally vague, but: you should go see this movie because it is awesome.

If you liked the original Scream, you will like this movie. It's made in a similar homage/take down style of the home invasion genre, and is absolutely worth it. I remember being frustrated because it looked generic...but it's anything but. And it's worth it going in not know much of what will happen. As I've said before, give it a shot.

Oldboy
Unfortunately, I still haven't seen either of these. They're both on Netflix, but I just haven't had the time.

Godzilla
I really liked Godzilla. Like, it wasn't great, but it was quite enjoyable. It's one of those movies where the promise exceeds that actual finished product. I hope they make a sequel and learn from their mistakes of this one to make the next one great.

The biggest problem is that the main characters are boring. Extremely, generically, astoundingly boring. And I did not give a shit what happened to them. By contrast, Godzilla was actually given a lot of character development and felt real and fleshed out and interesting, despite him being a CG monster. Weird huh?

Oh, and the movie fucking tricks you into thinking Bryan Cranston is the main character. He is not. And his story, what little there is, was FAAAAAR more interesting than the actual main character.

The Crow
I still have not seen the original movie. And I still know basically nothing about this. So...reaction stands.

Riddick
I hated Riddick. It took everything that was great about Pitch Black, and it shat all over it. It made me angry as all get out. This movie series is a clear demonstration of the creators not know what made the original so great and ruining, not once, but twice now.

As I said before, just go watch Pitch Black again. Save yourself the trouble.

I, Frankenstein
I never saw this. It looked boring. Maybe someday, but I don't really care.

Catching Fire
This movie is so good it almost makes me dislike the first one on sheer principle. If you enjoyed the first one, you will love the second one. It manages to make the Hunger Games aspect feel new, despite it being a sort-of rehash of the first movie. It doles out the emotional beats perfectly. The shaky cam is gone. It is phenomenal.

I'm sure they'll have info about the third one at Comic-Con.

300: Rise of an Empire
I haven't seen this one, but I've heard it is both stupid, and kind of enjoyable because of it. The main dude is a block of wood--so I've hard--but Eva Green is supposed to have stolen the movie in a big way.

Robocop
I didn't see this either. It looked very stupid. I heard its better than it has any right to be, but is still ultimately pointless.

Ender's Game
I didn't see this because Orson Scott Card is hella problematic and I'd prefer to devote my money to movies that don't make my testes shrink up in discomfort.

Captain America: Winter Soldier

I can't say that I enjoyed this one as much as the first one, but comparing the two is also almost impossible. They are so very different films. But I dug the hell out of this movie. Samuel L. Jackson is always awesome, Chris Evans will always be Captain America to me, and while Black Widow was pretty damn awesome, Anthony Mackie's Falcon stole the whole damned show.

I want a Falcon movie baaaaad now.

I will say: tired of seeing giant spaceships crash back to Earth at this point. Can we try something else for a climax now, filmmakers? Please?

Thor: The Dark World
I enjoyed the first Thor. It was pretty decent, but definitely not my favorite of the Marvel films. This one? I did not like. It's not that it was bad, but there was basically no emotional connection for me. Thor was so generic and bland that I didn't give a shit whether he lived or died, succeeded or failed. The only thing keeping me checked in was Loki, who was admittedly very awesome, as always. But ultimately...I didn't care.X-Men: Days of the Future Past
This was probably my favorite superhero movie this year so far. It was fun, it was unique. It didn't look like everything else. Did I mention it was fun? The superhero movies are starting to get Super Serious and this movie was like, "naw, Wolverine time travelling, guys. Quicksilver goofing around in hyperspeed." Just as good as First Class, and with the added bonus of Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart being awesome together. Bring on the sequel!

Avengers 2: Age of Ultron
I want to see Falcon. I'm excited to see him in this. The rest is gravy.

I'm sure there will be stuff at Comic-Con.

Guardians of the Galaxy
Chris Pratt has become so endearing that he alone could see me on this movie. But actually, the very first trailer was all I needed to know: a space opera with an off-beat tone where a group of intergalactic failures try to be superheroes? Yes. All the yes.

Now: PLEASE for the love of God, Marvel, feature a cameo from Carol Danvers as either Ms. Marvel or Captain Marvel and PLEASE for the love of God, Marvel, make a Captain/Ms. Marvel movie!

Amazing Spider-Man 2
This movie was both better than the first, and worse. The story was all over the place, but this was the most true to Spider-Man's personality that I've ever seen.

True, there were too many villains, and they REALLY hurt the Green Goblin's character by shoving him into the last act of the film, and true, Jamie Foxx's Electro was basically a black Edward Nygma from Batman Forever, but ultimately, I liked this movie because emotionally it hit most of the right beats, even if the story was pretty awful.

Superman/Batman Movie

Since writing this, they've made it seems almost weekly announcements. I didn't realize they only announced it last year, because it feels like it was announced years ago.

This comment from last year:

Where's a Flash movie? Or an Aquaman movie? (And before you scoff, maybe try reading Geoff John's New 52 issues of Aquaman--he's a badass.) Or, my personal complaint, where the hell is the Wonder Woman movie?

It's funny I said that since this movie is basically "Justice League: The Prequel." I'm not sure if they decided to do this because of the buzz from the general population or what, but now Aquaman has been added (with great casting, as Aquaman is, unquestioningly, a bad ass), Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Cyborg are supposed to make at least cameos.

There's the obvious surprise that Ben Affleck is Batman. There's the more stripped down, comics-friendly suit he has. They cast a former Israeli military member as Wonder Woman. While the movie doesn't look good, it certainly look interesting.

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Those are my thoughts on all the movies and stuff I talked about in last year's Comic-Con post. Once Comic-Con is over, I'll post my thoughts and reactions to all the new stuff announced. Since I've become much more into comics in the past year or so, I might post some stuff about those as well, depending on whether they announce anything that interests me.

NaNo Progress

About Me

J. M. Dow's owner pressed the B button, preventing him from evolving into his final form. He's had a fascination with dark, weird things since he was a little kid sneaking into the living room to watch late-night reruns of Tales from the Crypt. He lives in Northwest Arkansas with his wife and weenie dog.